THE ENTERTAINMENT FRANCHISEVERSE
As we look at the landscape of who owns the Top 50 (highest revenue) Entertainment franchises of all time it becomes crystal clear who dominates: The Walt Disney Company. During Bob Iger’s tenure as CEO, he led the company’s acquisition of IP powerhouses Marvel, LucasFilm, 20th Century Fox and Pixar. Disney now owns 12 of the Top 50 franchises, and those 12 alone have generated a combined estimated $432.8 billion in lifetime revenue.
You can see that the majority of TOP 50 franchises are owned by companies in five main categories; entertainment, gaming, toy, anime and manga companies. In fact, more than half of the Top 50 franchises are owned by only 10 companies.
The longevity of some of the intellectual properties on this list is astounding in today’s binge mentality. Mickey Mouse, Winnie the Pooh and Looney Tunes have entertained us since the 1920s, clearly defining what it means to be an evergreen franchise with all of their centennial anniversaries fast approaching.
A big surprise from the list is how many IPs are owned by gaming companies. Pokemon, which I wouldn’t really consider a “hot” property is #1 in total revenue, and also #1 in average revenue per year! The multi-player immersive quality of today’s games, like League of Legends, Minecraft and Pokemon Go, enhances the fan experience, creating a social element to gaming that fuels an enormous globally connected community.
With a Minecraft movie in development at Warner Bros, and Netflix’s League of Legends animated series, Arcane, which gamers are still raving about, a plethora of content is being developed by gaming companies as a way to further immerse fans in their IPs ecosystem. It is also worth noting that while Pokemon started in 1996, games such as Epic Games Fortnite launched in 2017, a mere 5 years ago.
It will be fascinating to see how this list transforms in the coming years as gaming continues to dominate.
The toy companies are interesting because most of these IPs started as a toy with a limited storyline to encourage a kid's imagination. Mattel and Hasbro have deep archives filled with beloved toy IPs that either have some story or could have an imaginative story written for them. With Hasbro announcing content development for 30+ IPs, including a reboot of the Transformers franchise, starring Anthony Ramos, and the upcoming Dungeons and Dragons film, starring Chris Pine, and Mattel following suit with some big swings such as Barbie’s big screen debut starring Margot Robbie and directed by the Oscar-nominated Greta Gerwig. And Mattel’s Masters of the Universe, which struggled to get adapted into a new live-action film, has been turned into a successful animated series on Netflix. It is no surprise that a toy line supported by content performs better, so it makes sense given the expanded entertainment landscape that the toy companies are investing more resources into entertainment projects.
Lastly, I love the globalness of this list, with 19 IPs that started in regions around the world, Dragonball, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Hello Kitty. This list especially reinforces the depth, power and universal appeal of Manga and Anime, which is also evident in the most popular video game properties, many of which have borrowed stylistically from those media forms.
In the Penalty Zone, we have Netflix and Lionsgate — both successful studios in their own right, yet neither company currently owns or controls a Top 50 IP.
A good portion of the IPs on this list have new entertainment projects in development, and most all continue to expand out across their IP ecosystem to create new experiences for their fans and to invite new consumers into their IP. It goes without saying that to develop a franchise today is very different from when the Mickey Mouses of the world began. However, it is those who are willing to learn from the greats, while also using technology and global connectivity to craft immersive fan experiences, that will build the franchises of the future. At the end of the day, when a fan builds an emotional connection to a franchise, they want to immerse themselves in it, and technology can offer that experience more than ever before.
While this list is based on lifetime gross franchise revenue, we will update this chart regularly and add new perspectives beyond revenue to further refine our list over time.
